This invention relates to a waste product collection unit. More particularly it relates to such a unit for use in a substantially sterile environment, such as an operating theatre.
Increasingly, professionals in the medical and veterinary sciences are becoming aware of the risks of contracting infectious diseases from the body parts and fluids of man and animals.
It is well-known that the viruses causing HIV, possibly leading to AIDS, and hepatitis and other related diseases, are transmitted from the body fluids, especially blood, of an infected person.
If any such fluid enters the bloodstream of a doctor, surgeon or veterinary surgeon, during the course of operating on the patient, there is a grave danger of infection. During an operation, there may be large amounts of fluid present, both the blood of the patient and irrigation fluids diluting that blood, and these fluids may spread beyond the immediate area; and there is a danger that they will contact the surgeon.
Currently used collection units for hazardous body fluids and materials are often bulky; they do not allow the safe disposal of collected waste and they are not easily sterilized for the aseptic techniques required for sterile procedures in the operating theatre.
Waste product collection units are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 759,084 (Eggers) and 1,741,836 (Gilbert). These devices are constructed so that they can be cleaned after use, in preparation for re-use. These devices include generally C-shaped inflatable walls, as seen in plan view, defining an outlet opening in said walls for the escape of liquid waste.
A very significant shortcoming of such prior proposals lies in their inability to meet the needs of modern operating conditions and nursing conditions which demand careful disposal rather than re-use of such equipment. Risks of cross-infection of the patient during an operation can be reduced by collecting the fluids in any receptacle. However, extremely high standards of care, in relation to the risk of cross-infection of health care workers from patients with transmissible diseases, are desired in relation to the proper disposal of body tissues and liquids which inevitably remain on the surface of such a device after a surgical procedure, and these conditions cannot be met by the prior art.
It is believed that it is these shortcomings have hindered the introduction of such devices for use in surgical procedures. As a result, the current practice at least so far as the United Kingdom is concerned involves the use of receptacles such as kidney dishes to accommodate fluids, and surgical drapes or the like to absorb and entrap liquids and solids which inevitably escape or overflow from the kidney dishes.
There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,334 (Jaeger), a surgical pad adapted for use with a speculum blade insertable into the vaginal cavity of a patent and comprising a pad for collecting tissue and having an adhesive surface area covered by a removable strip to permit the pad to be folded onto itself and adhesively secured together to enclose the collected tissue. The pad is formed with perforations (32) to permit the inflow of a saline solution and the outflow of this solution containing dissolved blood, in order to clean the entrapped tissue. Such a device is intended merely to mechanically retain tissue and to permit liquid contaminants therefrom to escape.
Accordingly, there is a considerable need for improvements in relation to the avoidance of contamination of surgical staff by the waste products of surgical procedures.